How to plan a career in IoT?

With the electronic chips becoming smaller and smaller, they can fit almost anywhere!

Imagine taking all the things that exist in this world, inserting a chip and connecting them to the internet.

Now, your desk can talk to your drawers, don’t lift a finger just ask google assistant to check what’s on the drawers and it will give you the list.

Going to take a bath on a winter morning? Can’t wait for hot water? Say “Google, geyser on” while you eat the sandwich for breakfast in your smart kitchen. And moreover you can make the geyser to turn ON/OFF itself based on your routine and temperature changes automatically.

This is essentially what IoT is! Transforming everything that we see and use in to smarter devices.

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So, what is IoT and its application?

Internet of things refers to network interfacing and communication of physical objects, devices and peripherals. These can exchange information between each other without depending on human to human or human to computer interaction.

It is the kind of technology that can even make your curtains “smart”. Tap the sunshine button on your smartphone and all the curtains will orchestrate a maneuver.

Amazing isn’t it?

IoT has wide-range of applications in today’s one touch optimization world. Imagine your water dispenser is on low volume and you don’t have the habit of checking it often, problem right?

With a dispenser based on IoT, your life becomes easier because the system can send you an alert to replace the bottles and you won’t be caught unprepared.

Industries use IoT for efficient management and optimizing production processes. With this, manufacturing process can be monitored effectively with little or no human effort.

We are having major power crisis, with depleting fuel reserves and this is where IoT comes in, and make things better. IoT allows the existence of ‘Smart Grids’ which utilize interconnection of various sources. With IoT, the power generated can be used with its maximum efficiency. This grid would “know” when to go full throttle on solar, and when to switch to diesel generator. This communication between different power sources is only possible with Internet of Things.

IoT finds its application in numerous industries. It will be required wherever there is a need for efficiency and ease. Since it is relatively a new field, it holds a lot of potential for development. Also, there is a lot of scope in this field, for anyone who wants to build a career in IoT.

Scope of IoT?

IoT is bringing a paradigm shift in our professional and personal life. IoT is being implemented in numerous arenas like, smart city, smart environment, security, smart agriculture, home automation, and the list goes on!

IoT is based on data collection and this data becomes information when organised in a comprehensible manner. Anything that can be recorded, can be optimised with IoT. Heartbeats, temperature, rainfall are examples of data which can be collected.

When this data is analysed and communicated, optimization begins.

IoT has given us the concept of machine-to-machine communication. Even if you want your business to thrive, better have IoT optimised solutions!

It is now possible for a helmet sitting on a person riding a scooter to communicate with a car speeding towards the rider. This way, helmet navigates the rider safely. Collision avoided!

It is evident from these examples that IoT has enormous potential that is just waiting to be tapped into.

The McKinsey Global Institute even predicts that IoT will have a total economic impact of upto $11 trillion by 2025.

Are IoT engineers in demand?

Careers in IoT are relatively new, and deals a lot with innovation. Since it is an uncharted territory, it needs brain power of lot of engineers to define and develop it properly.

IoT engineers are going to be very much in demand in the coming years. So, the answer is a big yes, IoT engineers are in a huge demand! It will create the next big gold rush in the job market.

Career options in IoT domain

Okay, so you decided to have a career in IoT, what’s next? What are the career options?

The main objective of IoT is data collection and generation. One can become a data scientist as they have high demand in IoT industry. Expertise in structured, unstructured and big data would be a strong deciding factor for getting opportunities in this field.

However, if data doesn’t interest you as much as gadgets and coding does, then you can always become an IoT architect. IoT systems are a complicated mesh of gadgets that need to communicate with each other.

Job Description of an IoT architect would be to “convert ideas into design and design into functional code”. They are responsible for mapping out the entire system process, from end to end.

But if all you’re interested is on coding, becoming an IoT developer is the best option for you. These are the people who get down to the basics and write the actual code which is responsible for the harmony between devices.

Nevertheless, these are not all the options you have. You can also become an IoT cloud engineer. By taking up this profession, you will be responsible for establishing database for collecting data from IoT devices in the network.

There are much more careers in IoT, it requires engineers from Mechanical, electrical, electronics and industrial control department as well.

Then, what skills are needed to develop a career in IoT?

Since this is a new technology on the block, it requires highly skilled personnel. IoT is all about forming teams. Therefore, it goes without saying building an IoT system will require brainpower of all departments of engineering. A successful career in IoT will entail having knowledge of a lot of different skills.

Gathering and analyzing a large amount of data would only make sense if we are able to decipher the pattern and eventually predict the outcome. As IoT becomes more complex and ubiquitous, AI will have to be called upon to handle tasks and make autonomous decisions.

UI/UX design is one important skill to have to work efficiently with IoT. The user interface must be effective and user-friendly.

The ability to develop apps that communicate with external hardware and sensors is the most sought after. This ensures that everything can be controlled right from your smartphone.

Apart from that, a developer should also be aware of business intelligence. If one doesn’t understand the value of data, they can’t make sense of it. Sensor data analysis, data center management, predictive analytics, programming the microcontroller and actuation process are some quality skills needed to work efficiently on IoT.

All of these skills can be acquired by developing projects on IoT. Building innovative IoT based projects will provide you the necessary hands-on experience. To help you in this, we at Skyfi Labs have developed some amazing courses that makes learning IoT super easy. Learning these skills will go a long way in planning a successful career in IoT.

How can you plan a career in IoT?

IoT isn’t an industry in itself. It is a service where work depends upon demands of other industries. This field requires a lot of self-learning, at least until universities start introducing IoT in their curriculum. Therefore, the best way to get a career in IoT would be by involving oneself in hands-on projects. A Ph.D in Data Science, or a B.Tech in Computer Science or IT would surely help in understanding the terms. This will ensure you get your fundamental basics right.

But it isn’t the only way to learn the basics. You can always develop them as you go!

However, true augmentation can only be learned through project building.

You can go through the numerous projects available at Skyfi Labs here.

Since it is an upcoming technology, time is a crucial factor. The sooner you learn IoT, the better chance you will have in developing a career in it.

Good IoT based Projects that you can build at home

1. IoT using Raspberry Pi

This course will introduce you to IoT and its amazing applications. Using a DHT sensor and Raspberry Pi, you will develop an electronic device that collects temperature and humidity data. It also stores the data over internet and then send an email when the temperature exceeds a threshold value. You will also get a certificate of completion on submitting your IoT project!

Agriculture finds a wide range of applications in IoT. Farming procedure can be radically changed with help of IoT. By enrolling in this course, you will get a kit containing all the necessary equipment, like Arduino, soil moisture sensor, DC Water Pump etc. along with the course content. With adequate online help you will succeed in making a smart irrigation system using IoT from your home itself!

In this project you will be using Arduino, which is a microcontroller. Apart from implementing IoT, you will also learn Arduino Architecture, Arduino Programming, and Calibration of Sensors by building this project!

You will be receiving a kit containing Arduino, PIR sensors upon enrolling into the course. With the help of online course, you will develop an electronic device that can switch ON the lights based on human activity. A smart building is one where temperature, lights and water are monitored so as to make it highly efficient. The PIR sensor will sense the number of people in a room and it will automatically switch on/off the lights and fans accordingly. Cool huh?

This project will help you design a system for smart streetlights. Smart streetlights can sense the amount of sunlight present. Based on this, it will automatically switch on, or off the lights to save energy. The system will have an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) that detects the intensity of sun light. This LDR will send data to Arduino which facilitates data collection and storage on cloud platform.